5 Tips to help improve your playlist

1. Know your Target Audience: Your music selection will play a key role in defining your classes.  Whether you are offering a toning class, a class for athletes or, an aging backwards paced class; choose music that suits your audience.
2. Find the Right Song Length: This will be a very crucial component when it comes to completing enough repetitions and creating balanced sequences.  Avoid trying to fit a trademark sequence into a 3-minute song.
3. Don’t Under-Estimate your Warm up Song: Consider this song your opening act! People are coming to your class to move, release, workout, or destress this song will set the tone for your class and for the preceding exercises
4. Create a Flow to Your Playlist- let your music take your clients on a journey of different genres and depths. Playlist are not created by stringing random songs together they should be created thoughtfully and with a consistent flow from the beginning to the end.
5. Explore outside your comfort zone: Music is universal, don’t limit your selection by staying safe. Explore the unknown and get inspired by unique genres and artist from around the world.

Are you Skiing Essentrically?

“There’s nothing like a deep powder day to make you grateful you have been doing Essentrics every day–especially if it’s the seventh powder day in a row. Though it’s tough to crunch your busy schedule around powder days without shirking your responsibilities entirely, your body will love you for at least working in a 22-minute session with Miranda or Sahra. ”

– Susan Mead L3 Instructor CO

Essentrics Benefits I’ve Noticed So Far with Skiing…
 

• Knee Strengthening and Support – Essentrics Tai Chi plies were the first thing I did after icing and resting a torn meniscus in 2014, and it felt great! Daily, full-body Essentrics, plus an anti-inflammatory diet, helped me heal it without surgery.
• Quad Strength – Right after a week in Mexico at sea level for our Symposium, I returned to my first day on skis for the season—and it was a powder day! I skied bumps and trees with a foot of powder for 5-6 hours before a break and miraculously—there was no quad discomfort that evening or the next morning. Those plies work for conditioning, too.
• Balance – my husband, a ski instructor for 12 years, reports after getting into Essentrics (he’s a 22-minute CS episode guy), he can feel it addressing his imbalances from skiing over 100 days a year. Plies, kicks and psoas stretches have been key for him; and he loves the Back-Pain DVD, especially when he only wants to do 14 minutes and knows he needs to do something!
• Flexibility leads to non-injuries from falls; I had a recent fall on a blue (intermediate) ski run during early morning set-up as a volunteer with Steamboat Ski Patrol that was quite humbling. ;), I was amazed at how little discomfort I was in and at 58, my goal is always to come back for another day.  Injury-free.
• Little Movements/Big Rewards – overworked fingers and hands from ski poles, smart phones and computers respond quickly to all our finger and arm work while rebalancing your whole arm for your next activity. One season I skied all year without poles since I had pain in my shoulders; my quads were like rocks and it improved my balance, even in the bumps.

“I hadn’t skied much before turning 60 – about the same time I discovered Essentrics.  I can correlate improvement in skiing with the development of a daily Essentrics practice.  The year I started working in earnest to certify L1, my stamina, balance, and confidence increased dramatically.  At 63, I could ski all day without experiencing sore muscles!”

– Terry Nolan L3 Instructor CO

Essentrics Benefits I’ve Noticed So Far with Skiing…
 

• Body awareness of the weight load path translates to a better ski stance.
• Good posture – stacked so that the joints are effortlessly supported by cartilage – relates to how the sweet spot feels on skis.
• Improved full body strength and flexibility provides power to recruit muscles and avoid falls without injury.  It’s all muscles on deck when a tumble is imminent!
• Knees and quads are often in focus for skiers, but they don’t function in isolation—healthy muscle chains include strong, flexible hips and a torso that carries its own weight.
• Footwork provides stamina—and feeling the three mounds on the sole is helpful even in ski boots.
• Don’t forget to re-balance after skiing—there’s a lot of contraction happening on the mountain.  Creating the pumping activity that flushes blood in and out of the muscles is restorative.

Level 4 Instructor Fleur Kalbfleisch introduced Essentrics during a couple of workshops for recovering (breast) cancer survivors in collaboration with Pluk de dag PINK, a foundation that focuses on the aftercare of people who struggle(d) with cancer. It’s important for them to focus on the positive sides of being healthy in their body again. Most of them have lost the trust in their body and the ability to move; now it’s time for them to get back on track slowly. However, there is not much advice given about how to move after finishing treatments with a physiotherapist. Essentrics is the key word here. Fleur introduced the Essentrics technique so everybody getting familiar with a new, respectful way of exercising for a great recovery of their body and a happy feeling.

“I’ve taught a very slow class, a pain relief workout, release and restore-ish. I focused a lot on connective tissue and posture, because of the less mobility they have. That was my first goal, followed by making slow movements. We didn’t work with strength, that was (still) a bit too much. But I wanted to make them feel great and happy again. Using a good explanation of the technique and lovely music they could create new memories and forget the cancer (for a moment).”

Every patient has their own level, so Fleur made a few adjustments to make everybody feel comfortable with the workout. Especially for women who had breast surgery. The focus was the trust in their body, so every movement was very slow, low pace and easy follow. Also, she explained a lot during the workout. For them, the new knowledge about the self-recovering body was a good motivation to move and get back the faith in their body.

“I am overwhelmed by all the amazing response and I am deeply humbled not only by the amazing people I met, but also by their response to Essentrics. They experienced a new flow of energy in their bodies: ‘’I feel space and energy entering my body. I forgot how that felt,’’ was only one of the many positive and rewarding feedback. We as teachers of this fantastic workout can make a difference in these people’s lives. Restoring their energy, their strength, the confidence in their body and for women; regaining their femininity. After the first workshop, I decided to share this with as many (cancer) patients. My goal with Essentrics and my company Fflow Academy is to help people move in flow, whatever their background is. A lot of people came to me with hope in their faces. I love to help them for free, I see this as my return for the society. Working with cancer patients is the philanthropic aspect of Fflow Academy.”

After four workshops, the Essentrics workout was rated with a 9,5! Incredible high, which confirms the enormous quality and functionality. A lot of people contacted Fleur afterwards and she has sent them in all directions. Luckily, we have great teachers in different parts of the Netherlands.

The best reward for me is the story of Betsy: “She is a survivor of cancer who drives 110 kilometers (two-hour drive) each Monday to join my class. I’ve told her about classes in her area, but she doesn’t want to miss any of my Monday’s, and in fact she hasn’t for half a year already. In her time, practicing Essentrics she felt better, her knee injuries disappeared and every week she’s smiling and shining like she won the lottery. That’s the biggest compliment and satisfaction I could wish for.”